The invention relates to electronic chip cards and, more particularly, in such cards, organisation systems which make it possible to configure them with a view to using them as servers of the type used in the network known as the Internet.
Electronic chip cards are being more and more widely used for performing various functions in relation to equipment such as computers for personal use, mobile telephone handsets, banking terminals, etc. To this end, they are configured as electronic circuits and software for communicating with the equipment with which they are connected in accordance with communication protocols which are relatively simple and are defined by ISO 7816-3/4.
These communication protocols do not make it possible to access the, electronic chip card in a network of the Internet type using the addressing method utilised in such a network for access locally or at a distance to all types of application (texts, images, sound, voice, files etc)
The current organisation of electronic chip cards and the communication protocols which they use do not therefore make it possible to use them as servers of the type used in the Internet.
One aim of the invention is therefore to produce an electronic chip card which can be used as a server in a network of the Internet type through a terminal adapted for accessing this network.
To achieve this aim, the invention proposes systems for organising electronic chip cards which enable any user of the network to which it is connected to communicate with it in accordance with a common and universal addressing language.
In order to simplify the reading of the description and claims, the acronyms defined below will be used as substantive:
URL is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cUniform Resource Locatorxe2x80x9d and defines a means for locating and naming a resource (file, text, sounds, images, application, program or data table and generally referred to ask an xe2x80x9cobjectxe2x80x9d ) available on a server, in the field of the Internet. There exist several URL access schemes which each correspond to an access protocol, for example xe2x80x9chttp://xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cftp://xe2x80x9d which allow distant access via a network, or xe2x80x9cfile://xe2x80x9d which allows access to a local file system.
WWW is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWorld Wide Webxe2x80x9d and defines the world-wide network of information and services of the Internet.
WAP is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Application Protocolsxe2x80x9d and defines a set of protocols of the wireless telephony network enabling mobile terminals to connect to and access the information and servers of the Internet.
HTML is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cHyperText Markup Languagexe2x80x9d and defines a language for defining the structure and display of the document or file as well as the elements for browsing within the WWW network.
HTTP is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cHyperText Transfer Protocolxe2x80x9d and defines the communication protocol of the WWW network making it possible notably to recover the resources available on the WWW network.
WSP is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Session Protocolxe2x80x9d and defines a WAP protocol layer equivalent to the HTTP protocol.
TLS is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cTransport Layer Securityxe2x80x9d and defines the protocol relating to the determination of the security parameters and algorithms in order to establish a protected session between a client terminal and a server.
WTLS is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Transport Layer Securityxe2x80x9d and defines the TLS protocol transposed to wireless telephony in all the WAP protocols.
TCP/IP is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cTransmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocolxe2x80x9d and defines a protocol layer of the communication level used in the Internet which manages the addressing and routing of the data packets in the network.
WTP is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Transport Protocolxe2x80x9d and defines a WAP protocol layer equivalent to the TCP/IP protocol on the Internet.
WML is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Markup Languagexe2x80x9d and defines an HTML language simplified for the WAP protocol.
WAE is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Application Environmentxe2x80x9d and defines the application environment of the client terminal, that is to say the client browser, in the WAP protocol for access to the services of the Internet.
WTA is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cWireless Telephony Applicationxe2x80x9d and defines an application environment of the client terminal in the WAP protocol for the telephony services.
CGI is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cCommon Gateway Interfacexe2x80x9d and defines an interface for access to the applications of the WWW. This interface makes it possible to activate applications on the WWW servers using a URL request sent from a client browser. This interface supports the passage of input parameters to the applications.
APDU is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cApplication Protocol Data Unitxe2x80x9d and defines an elementary exchange format for commands between an application on a terminal and an application on a chip card. It is a case for example of the ISO 7816-4 standard.
SQL is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cStructured Query Languagexe2x80x9d and defines the language used in the interrogation of relational databases.
SCQL is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cStructured Card Query Languagexe2x80x9d and defines the query language for a chip card of the database type, in accordance with ISO 7816-7. SCQL is the equivalent in chip cards of the SQL language used in the interrogation of relational databases.
BNF is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cBackus-Naur Formxe2x80x9d and defines a symbolic pseudocode for defining syntactical rules of a language and a grammar.
GSM is the acronym of the English expression xe2x80x9cGlobal System for Mobilesxe2x80x9d and designates a mobile telephony system.
The invention therefore relates to a system for organising an electronic chip card with a view to its use as a server by means of a terminal to which it is connected in a digital data transmission network such as the Internet, the electronic chip card comprising a microprocessor, and memories containing programs and data for implementing the operating system of the electronic chip card and for managing the inputs/outputs of the electronic chip card, characterised in that it also comprises:
means for translating the commands coming from the terminal into elementary commands of the electronic chip card,
means for performing the operations defined by the elementary commands, and
means for formatting the response from the electronic chip card to the terminal.
The means for translating the URL commands comprise a look-up table recorded in one of the memories.
In a variant, the electronic chip cards also comprise means for implementing session (WSP) and transmission (WTP) protocols.